title: HIV/AIDS prevention and media campaigns: limited information?
abstract: This piece begins with a brief literature review that focuses upon how media attempt to make sense of news events and construct meaning about HIV/AIDS. We then focus specifically on a linguistic process identified in French dailies in articles about the prevalence and incidence of HIV/AIDS, namely, the presence of certain adverbs. The impact of this linguistic process is also investigated in an experimental study. The results indicated that participants who were exposed to a message within which epidemiological data were marked by such adverbs compared to those who processed a message without such an adverbial marking expressed a higher level of perceived risk and declared a stronger intention to use a condom and to practice a screening test. They also judged the epidemiological situation as more serious and were more supportive of a coercive management of the epidemic. These effects also appeared when the message referred to a sexually transmitted infection with which the subjects were not familiar.
authors.affiliation: a Équipe PsyCom, LERASS , University Paul Sabatier.
authors.forename: Vincent
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Coppola
authors.forename: Odile
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Camus
mesh_terms: D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D000293:Adolescent; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008037:Linguistics / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D008402:Mass Media; D012749:Sexually Transmitted Diseases / Q000517:prevention & control; D055815:Young Adult